Hey I really need help... I can't hear anything from my computer. It happened all of a sudden, everything was ok before. I checked all the sounds options and none of them are on mute. I can't hear a single thing even if I turn the volume all the way up... I should mention I do not have speakers but my PC has built in ones (that's how I would hear sounds till this problem occured). It's really annoying and I have no idea what else to do. Please help!

Assuming you haven't fiddled with or changed any of the physical connections for your sound, or you haven't installed any new devices since your sound last worked (e.g. some cards can conflict with your sound's resources and cause no sound).... Most people have more programs than just the Windows sound mixer or whatever came with the sound that can control the main volume or mute it - check the settings in those programs too. E.g. some versions of WinAmp can be set to lower the main volume to nothing, or to mute it.

galoosh33, Go to the link below and click on the ? to the left of "Where did my Sounds go?" to expand it where you'll find some possible solutions. Where did my Sounds go Tufenuf

Tubesandwires, I hear no sound at all (whether I am using Winamp, iTunes, windows media player or just default windows sounds) so that's not the issue =[ As for the "Where did my sounds go" link, I found nothing relevant there. I didn't change any of the hardware but I did have my computer formatted. The problem appeared after that. What worries me is that I remembered that it happened once before the format, but back then I just rebooted the machine and it was alright again (obviously that doesn't help now). Could it actually be a hardware problem with the sound card?! That's what worries me the most... ARGH =[

Have you ran a PC Diagnostics test? (IE) checking left and right speakers, plus a wave test. It's worth a go.

"....I hear no sound at all (whether I am using Winamp, iTunes, windows media player or just default windows sounds) so that's not the issue =[" It certainly can be, if one of those, or another program, can mute the main volume or reduce it to the point you can't hear it. "....but I did have my computer formatted. The problem appeared after that. " That's a whole different situation. Did the sound work at all after that format? Did you load the chipset drivers for the mboard, and any other drivers for the built in stuff on the mboard after running Setup? You MUST do that in order for Windows to recognize the mboard properly. Was your sound card correctly detected? XP is pretty good at detecting devices, but sometimes it makes mistakes. If you're not sure, load the proper drivers for the sound card. Do you also have onboard sound? If you do, is it disabled in your bios Setup? If it isn't, Windows may be trying to use the onboard sound, which you are not plugged into. Windows can handle more than one sound chipset, but you can only use one of them at a time. Take a look in Control Panel - Sounds and Audio Devices - Audio tab, and Voice tab - is Windows set to the the right device?